North America’s Grade 1 steeplechase schedule includes just six races. They range from 2 1/16 miles to 3 miles, May to November, Tennessee to New York, flat/fast racetracks to hilly/taxing racecourses. Demonstrative made all six – putting up three wins, a second (by a nose), a third, and a sixth. The three Grade 1 wins led all 2014 steeplechasers. The $362,500 in earnings, the second-highest total for a season in history, did as well.
The New York-bred mare Dayatthespa long ago outgrew her roots. There were clues from the beginning that it could happen.
Expectations were high for Close Hatches in 2014. She entered the year ranked among the leaders of the older female division following a 2013 campaign at age 3 that included Grade 1 wins and a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Javier Castellano set a high standard in 2013, when he won his first Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey after establishing a North American record for mount earnings in a year. Castellano again managed to reach significant heights in 2014, and because of his accomplishments, he is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding jockey for the fourth time.
California Chromes’s story brings hope that good fortune can shine on anyone in this sport, that you don’t have to buy your way to the top. His owners took an $8,000 mare, bred her to a $2,500 stallion, and reached the summit on the first Saturday in May.
Rare is the horse who can hold his form from January through November, and rarer still the horse who does so in his first year on the track. But Bayern proved throughout 2014 that he was a rare talent, good enough to run in the biggest races in the spring, summer, and fall, traveling extensively, and saving his best for last.
In late August, trainer Bob Baffert’s stable appeared to be in a momentary state of decline. Haskell Invitational winner Bayern had just finished last in the Aug. 23 Travers Stakes at Saratoga, and a day later, longtime stable stalwart Game On Dude faded to fourth in the Pacific Classic Del Mar – a disappointing race that swayed his connections to retire him.
Before he was able to delight in winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Bayern, trainer Bob Baffert wallowed in despair for most of the week after having to scratch his top 2-year-old, American Pharoah, from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile due to injury.
No operation has had command of the Eclipse Award for outstanding breeder quite like Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs.
A little more than a quarter of the way through Aqueduct’s 70-day inner-track meet, there is both good news and bad news to report.
